For the "elder brother" rabbis, maintaining their deception of Christians while remaining true to their traditions of hatred for Jesus Christ and Christian symbols is a thorny matter. The Wailing Wall Rabbi, Shmuel Rabinovitch, who is often seen in photos of world leaders prostrating themselves at the wall in Jerusalem, will ultimately defer to the Chief Rabbinate on how to deal with the Pope's pectoral cross. A story of how Israeli Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger handled a JPII pectoral cross conundrum in 2005 can be read here:

In 2000, when JPII made his visit to the Wailing Wall, Judaism was not at its present level of ascendancy. Rabbi Rabinovitch didn't cause a commotion over JPII's pectoral cross as he has during recent visits from bishops and in anticipation of the upcoming Benedict XVI visit. Now, Judaism is much stronger in the Israeli state and around the world and its dispensational component laid out by Maimonides in the Mishneh Torah and in other rabbinic texts is coming into play. Not only is Rabbi Rabinovitch attempting to prevent Benedict XVI from wearing his pectoral cross, he's also brazenly lying in an attempt to blot out the indisputable fact that JPII wore his pectoral cross at the Western Wall in 2000 to make it appear as if there's no change in his current stance which is a move closer towards rabbinic mandates on "idolatry."

When one of Rabbi Rabinovitch's superior rabbis decides for him how this matter should be handled the decision will be based in Maimonides' code of situation ethics: if upholding the true mandates of Judaism pertaining to Christian "idolaters" and their "idols" threatens to cause "The Jews" to be viewed badly or suffer hostility then it's permissible to make an exception. But the fact that the matter is now open for discussion is a clear sign that the momentum is towards the rabbinic ideal.

Jerusalem Rabbi Insists the Pope Must Hide His Cross

March 19,2009

Tim McGirk - Time

... Even though the Vatican says it has received no formal request for the Pope to remove his golden crucifix during his visit to the Wall, Rabbi Rabinovitch's comments are bound to raise tensions on the eve of the trip. Israel's Foreign Ministry tried to smooth the waters by saying in a statement that "in accordance with rules of hospitality and dignity," the State of Israel will not prevent the Pope from wearing his cross when he visits the Western Wall.

But it is the rabbis rather than the government who hold sway at the Western Wall, and Rabbi Rabinovitch has twice previously turned away Christian delegations. In November 2007 he refused to let Austrian bishops near the wall after they would not remove or conceal their crosses, and in May 2008 he refused a request from a group of Irish bishops and prelates to visit the site. "They wanted to wear their crosses openly," Rabinovitch says ...

Explaining the intensity of feeling over the quintessential symbol of Christianity, Rabbi Ron Kronish, director of the Interreligious Coordinating Council in Israel, a Jerusalem group promoting religious dialogue, says that there exists among ultra-Orthodox Jews "a certain allergy towards the cross." Asking the Pope to remove his cross, he says, is "part of the ongoing paranoia of Jewish history ..."

Rabinovitch was in charge of the Western Wall during the visit of the late Pope John Paul II in 2000, when the pontiff prayed and twisted a written message into the cracks of the ancient stones, observing the Jewish belief that all prayers made at the Wall are answered. Rabbi Rabinovitch insists that John Paul II did not wear a visible crucifix during his visit to the site, but photographs taken during that visit clearly show the Polish Pope wearing his familiar golden cross as he touched the wall, head bowed ...

It's possible that the fuss over the Pope's cross will blow over before Benedict arrives, since Rabinovitch's edict could be overruled by Israel's two chief rabbis [Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar], who are more politically attuned to the questions of the country's international image ...